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Extreme Settings
pust082
Member Posts: 157
in Everquest II
I am building a new computer primarily for muitimedia and video editing, but also for gaming. I have done alot of browsing on the forums over the last few months, but i have not found a consistant opinion of what hardware to use for extreme settings on EQ2. Does anyone have anymore websites to reference in order to make a decision on my new Pc's guts?
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*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
Comments
I run on extreme settings with 2 gigs of ram and a geforce 7600 GT. I'm fine though I do still get lag, especially in Kunark (people whined so much about having to zone all the time that SOE made the zones for this expansion way too big which only served to increase the lag). You'll get lag no matter what in the cities.
Im in the same position as you, and i'm totally saving up for a GeForce 8800GT. It's about $300, but from what I hear, buying anything else at this point will only cost more money down the road. I got an SLI capable motherboard so one day I can use 2 8800GT's, should I ever need to. I'm also saving up for an AMD 6000+ or 6400+, though everyone tells me Intel is better. I just cant justify spending $300+ for one of their overhyped chips.
Heres what I bought: 2 gigs of RAM, 20x DVD, 600w power supply, Soundblaster Xtreme gamer, 5.1 logitech speakers, G15 Keyboard, G5 mouse, NZXT Apollo silver case, and a bunch of zalman fans. All from Newegg of course.
In my opinion, if you're building your PC from scratch, aim high. If money is an issue (and it definitely is for me) be patient and set your intention. I'm not sure where the money came from to afford what I've bought so far, yet there it is in my den waiting to be built.
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www.awarewolf.net
Extreme quality setting is overated. There are more problems using this setting than what you get out of it. Difference is minute to playing on the High Quality setting.
Ive toggled with all settings and i never really noticed a difference between High Quality and Extreme Quality (so you can forget Very High Quality too). Even balanced setting looks great.
It is nice to hear the quality will not change much between the higher settings, but to be honest... lag is just as much of an issue for me. I have read that there are some zones that you cannot help but lag a bit. I can deal with that, but i dont want lag to be a regular thing with partical effects on high or anything else.
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*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
I have 4 gigs of ram, core2@3.6ghz and an 8800gt. I run on very high because extreme can get slow, especially in town(@1920x1200). As far as the parts where you "can't help but lag" the only one I remember was qeynos docks, but that was on my old machine. I haven't had any hitches with the new one.
Just a quick note, but Intel is better and in-line with AMD's pricing for a change. Probably the best buy out there is the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, which is only around$180, and it out-performs all AMD chips and even the lowest end Intel quad core, the Q6600. But, if you're willing to wait a month, Intel is shipping even cheaper and better CPUs on January 20th, 2008. They're slightly less expensive than the current ones and outperform them by about 15% due to substantially larger caches.
With all of that said, AMD is still a decent choice, I myself am a long time AMD supporter. The sad truth is that right now Intel is just a much better buy, in all respects. Even the new AMD Phenom processor is dissapointing, or the current models on the market at least. Hopefully the pull their stuff together and have something decent out soon.
I ran on one of the highest setting with my AMD 4200+ X2 and 7900 GT SLI build. Ran around 20-40 fps depending on where I was of course. I loved the graphics they where quite nice.
Really on a nice Core2Duo and video card (Be it a 8800 GT/3870) I'm sure you'll be able to turn those graphics up to the highest they go. Don't forgot to overclock those suckers too!
the main issue I see with running these higher settings is the amount of ram EQ2 uses. What happens for me is that some zones use upwards of 1.5gb on very high and unless I strip out other stuff running on my computer that pushes me into swapping and that creates lag spikes. Extreme is probably even worse meaning on a 2gb system you will really need to strip it down or get more memory and hack it to use 3gb.
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Ethion
Can someone post some comparison screens of extreme and very high quality? Is it noticeable at all and is it worth the extra load?
Actually there is a significant difference between extreme quality and v/high quality, though the differences will be visible only when you zoom in to characters up close. Most of the time ppl play the game from a bird view so you wont really see the big differences, but there is one. The only big diff you will see from a bird view are environment and torch shadows.
ps. Get a C2D, much much much better then AMDs and offer. Also Eq2 quite CPU intensive so you will benefit more from Intel.
ps2. As others said it v/high settings are still look real good and you can custime those settings as you like em.
Thanks for the advice all.
I have a few questions if any one can help:
What would be the difference in performance between a dual core and quad core Intel?
Is 2gig enough RAM? or will 3-4 be better?
What is the best CPU(high end) for the money?
What is the best Video Card(high end) for the money?
I have a pretty good idea of what ill be putting together after the christmas holiday, but I would welcome any other advice.
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*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
Dunno how Eq2 handles 4 cores. IT had some difficulties when dual cores cpus started to appea on the scene. There were minor bugs that involved dual cores but fixed those. Eq2 is very cpu intensive game, so if it can use 4 cores then 4 core is better, though you should check this.
4 gigs would be better but that only works in Vista and only in 64bit version and Eq2 doesnt really like those:) I am using a 1900xt with a C2D 6600 at 3.4 Ghz and the game looks and runs rael good.
EQ2 doesnt support multicores in any way. It's just that if you have 2 or 4 cores your system load is better managed so EQ2 will have more cpu resources itself instead of having to share them with all the background apps running.
The real secret sauce is
1. 2 gigs or more of high speed ram (DDR2 preferred with low latency)
2. Processor that is 3Ghz or more...and that is on one core, as dual core does NOT work...I have a dual core E6600 overclocked each core to 3Ghz, and the fps gains were phenomenal.
3. The 8800GT is the shiznit. I just got this, and I was able to FINALLY turn on shadows without a major hit to performance or crashes...this card is such a winner!
4. Finally a high cached hard drive (with 16mb or 32mb cache)...preferably the Western Digitals or a 10,000rpm drive will work also
These all work wonders for this game...and can be relatively cheap if you shop around..
Good luck